A POLICE officer has reported the theft of his gun after burglars broke
into his apartment on the outskirts of Nicosia between 7pm on Friday and
3.30am yesterday. The thieves got away a service pistol, two clips
containing 25 bullets, gold and silver items worth £1,515, and $188 in
cash. CID in Nicosia is investigating.

FRENCH far right leader Jean Marie Le Pen made a brief stopover in Cyprus
yesterday en route to Lebanon and said he disagreed with Turkey joining the
European Union because it was not a European state.

The founder of the National Front party stopped in Larnaca for an hour
before boarding a flight to Beirut where he is expected to meet Hezbollah
leader Sheikh Fadlallah.

Speaking to reporters at Larnaca airport, Le Pen said he was a friend of
the Greeks and expressed hope for a fair solution to the Cyprus problem.

He said he totally opposed Turkey's accession to the EU because the country
was not European.

“Turkey is not a European state,” he said.

Le Pen, a highly controversial figure, in 1987 described the holocaust as a
“detail of history”.

A LARNACA schoolgirl, distraught over her grades, tried to commit suicide
on Friday. Police said yesterday the 17-year-old, upset and disillusioned
with her poor grades, took a large dose of barbiturate pills.

She was rushed unconscious to Larnaca General Hospital and treated by
medical staff who succeeded in reviving her. She has since been released,
and is resting at home her family.

POLICE arrested a 42-year-old British man yesterday in connection with a
hit-and-run incident which killed 17-year-old Irish tourist Clare Carty and
injured her 23-year-old brother, Dermot.

The driver allegedly hit the pair from behind as they were walking on the
left side of the Coral Bay-Peyia road at around 10pm on Friday. The suspect,
a permanent resident of Cyprus, was driving with his girlfriend when the
accident happened, causing his car to overturn and end up in an adjacent
field.

Police said the driver had waited until a passer-by stopped on the road
before leaving the scene uninjured. He was arrested after police obtained a
warrant and searched a house in Peyia and nearby medical clinics.

The suspect reportedly told police that the shock of the accident had
caused him to flee the area and leave the victims and his car behind.
Police said he tested negative for alcohol when tested.

The Irish teenager was pronounced dead on arrival at Paphos hospital. Her
older brother was reported to be in a stable condition yesterday. He is
conscious and has a fractured toe. The doctor on duty said Dermot was out
of danger and will probably be discharged today or tomorrow.

Their parents had accompanied the two children to Cyprus for the Christmas
holidays, and were staying in the Coral Bay area of Paphos.

THE ISLAND'S health system is outdated and incapable of satisfying public
health requirements, a senior Health Ministry official said yesterday.

Which is why the idea of a National Insurance Health Scheme was devised,
said Chief Medical Officer Andreas Polyniki.

“At the moment, there is an oversupply of resources, a separation between
the private and public health care sectors, quality insufficiency, absolute
absence of protocols and standards and a constant increase in cost of
services,” he said.

Human resources, hospital beds and technology are all in oversupply; the
private and public sectors do not communicate with one other, leading to
patients sometimes undergoing the same examinations twice; there are no
procedures outlining steps to fulfil tasks such as operations (an
appendectomy could be performed one way in one hospital and another way in
a second) and there is no instrument to measure how successful a medical
intervention has been or to evaluate the quality of health care provided.
Moreover, inefficiencies in the health care system mean the cost of
services is on the rise, covering three per cent of the Gross Domestic
Product growth, posing serious problems for covering health care needs in
the future.

“If people are staying in hospital longer than necessary, this increases
costs,” Polyniki said.

Private clinics and state hospitals had a whole host of problems, he added.
From understaffing and lack of modern equipment in the former, to under-
utilisation of technology and lack of modern management culture in the
latter, he said.

“The new system,” said Polyniki, which will be fully implemented in three
years' time, “will take care of all these weaknesses and inefficiencies and
be based on competition.”

It will be financed through one financial force, providing free and equal
health care for every citizen of the Republic, by combining both the
private and public sector, he said.

“Even the rich cannot afford to pay for the treatment of serious or chronic
illnesses. This way, everyone will have equal access, as well as free
access, at all points of delivery. No one will pay when they are need of
health care and they will be able to choose whether that care is provided
at the hospital or in a clinic,” said Polyniki.

The National Health Scheme was set up to have three social partners: the
government, employers and employees. These three sections of society will
contribute financially towards establishing a fund, which will buy health
care from all providers (private and public) for the entire population. The
government will contribute 4.55 per cent of everyone's salary, employees
would contribute two per cent of their salary and employers will pay 2.55
per cent for every two per cent their employees pay. Self-employed people
will pay 3.55 per cent of their income. Also all other sources of personal
income - such as rent and bank account interests - would contribute two per
cent to the fund, he said.

“At the primary health care level, the public will be given a list of
registered general practitioners (GPs) to choose from. Each person will
then be on the GP's list and visit him or her as frequently as they like
for check ups. If the GP feels the patient needs secondary or tertiary care,
they will be referred to a specialist or admitted into hospital. At this
point, the patient will have the choice of whether or not he or she wants
this secondary care to be in the private or public sector. And the bill
will be footed by the fund,” he said.

Although Cyprus did not yet have a GP system, it was being introduced
slowly and by the end of 2005 the public would be asked to fill out a form
choosing who they wanted to be their GP.

“We are starting to train doctors that are willing to be GPs. Already, 150
from both the private and public sector have had this training through the
UK. After they have been trained, we will introduce the system of continual
medical education (CEM). This is to ensure that they are kept up-to-date
with medical science's rapid development,” he said. People would be able to
change their GPs as often as they liked if they were displeased with the
care they were receiving and to visit them as often as they liked, free of
charge. The GPs would be reimbursed from the fund, he said, depending on
how many patients they had on their books.

“This will act as an incentive to ensure GPs offer the best possible
medical care. If you're no good, you won't have any patients and then you
won't get paid as much,” he pointed out. The GPs would be self-employed and
Polyniki said the scheme wanted to promote joint ventures of GPs working
together and sharing the costs of secretaries, nurses and other facilities.

GPs would also know a little bit about everything and get an all-round
picture of the patient they were dealing with and so would provide better
care than a specialist, he said. “A gastroenterologist might not realise
your heart has a problem, but your GP would be able to spot the difference.
Just because you are a specialist in one field, does not mean you are in
another.”

The same competition would apply to hospitals and clinics. “They provide
the care and it will be up to the people to choose whether or not they want
to use them. If they're no good, no one will go there for treatment and so
they won't get paid. Therefore it is in their best interest to improve the
health care they offer.”

And medical prices would be fixed between the fund and the medical
association. In other words, clinics would not be able to set really high
prices for operations compared to another, because again people would opt
not to pay for it, knowing they could go elsewhere for free, he said.

“If you want to go somewhere privately and to pay for it you can. No one
can stop you from having treatment abroad or skipping a visit to the GP and
going straight to a specialist. However, instead of getting it for free,
you will have to pay for it.”

The only time people could skip their GP altogether and go directly to a
specialist for free was in cases of “evident sickness”. A broken leg,
pregnancy, severe cut were all such cases, he said. Children under 15 would
also be listed with paediatricians and not GPs.

In a nutshell, it all boils down to choice. Patients' choice of who their
doctor is and where they undergo treatment, he said. “If you're not good,
you won't get chosen and in turn you won't get paid.”

At the moment, there is an oversupply of physicians and clinics. With this
new system they would have to decrease in number, he said. “The Fund is the
employer and the clinics, hospitals and doctors are the providers of the
service. Only good service will be sought after.” In short, a competitive
medical market would ensure optimum health care.

By the time Cyprus joined the EU on May 1, 2004, Cypriots would have access
to free medical care in all European countries if they had proof of local
NHS registration with them. The same applied for Europeans travelling to
Cyprus. This medical care would be for acute conditions, he said.

“If you have a heart attack in London, you are entitled to free health care
there. You will be admitted to hospital and then your country of origin
will pay for the bill. The same goes for a tourist from France holidaying
here, for instance. If however, you have gallstones and they are causing
you discomfort while on holiday, you do not need acute care. Instead they
will treat you for the pain and then send you to your country of origin for
surgery,” explained Polynikis. At the moment, this does not apply and
unless there is a bilateral agreement between two countries, patients have
to pay for medical care - acute or not.

Before the new system is fully implemented, the fund's council is setting
up a health information system, setting up a database of all providers,
preparing a medical audit and quality assurance standards and continuing
with training more GPs. The council is made up of 11 members, including
government representatives, employers and trade unions. And by February
next year, it would appoint its executive director, he said.

So what was the point and benefit of this new system?

“This health care system is curative, preventive, promotive from the cradle
to the grave. Whether you are rich, poor, employed or unemployed. It is a
system of solidarity,” he said.